Still queuing after all these years

Snaking queues formed outside the National Stadium on May 13, 1977, as football fans waited patiently for tickets to see Singapore play against rivals Selangor, in the hotly anticipated Malaysia Cup final.

The orderly scene later gave way to a mass stampede as fans jostled to get hold of tickets when they were released at 8pm. As a result, one man died of a heart attack and 44 others were injured.

The photo, taken by former Straits Times photographer Mak Kian Seng, is part of The Straits Times and National Museum of Singapore's We: Defining Stories photo exhibition.

The free showcase chronicles the defining moments in Singapore's history from 1950 to last year.

On show will be more than 400 photographs from the paper's archives and the museum's collection. They have been divided into six sections; Merdeka (the Malay word for freedom), Home, Challenges, Heroes, So Singaporean and Our Stories.

The exhibition will run at the museum's Exhibition Gallery 1 from Sunday to Aug 31, from 10am to 6pm daily.

Straits Times readers can flash any copy of the paper or its mobile app on their mobile devices to gain entry to an exclusive preview on Saturday, as part of the Straits Times Appreciates Readers (Star) programme.

This article was published on April 24 in The Straits Times.Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.